Julian Assange’s Twitter account goes offline, returns

It’s a Christmas miracle of sorts. Julian Assange’s Twitter account disappeared from the site, returned, and now there’s a bouncing baby Corgi up top. The account appears to have gone offline around 7:00/8:00PM ET on Christmas Eve, a silent night for the Wikileaks founder.

Attempts to access the page overnight were met with a “Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!” message. The site’s official account, meanwhile, stayed online, with several of its most recent posts soliciting donations.

https://twitter.com/JulianAssange/status/945319086166339585

As of 10AM ET this morning, Assange’s account is back up — though at present, his follower count has dipped precipitously, dropping below 10,000.

Around half an hour after going back online, the newly restored account posted another donation solicitation, this time with a short video of an excited Corgi. Neither accounts have addressed the several hours of downtime. We’ve reached out to Twitter about the incident, but unsurprisingly have yet to hear back — Christmas morning and all.

Assange’s account was down long enough to draw a good deal speculation that it may have been pulled for a specific reason. CBS news reports that another unverified account claiming to be Assange popped up in his absence, suggesting the original had been pulled ahead of a blockbuster Wikileaks release. That one, however, has since been suspended by the service.